The former Chairman of the National Commission on Television and Radio Grigor Amalian was appointed General Director of “Television and Radio Broadcast Network of Armenia” CJSC of the RA Ministry of Transport and Communication. On October 7, 2013 Aravot.am reported about this in an article, titled “Grigor Amalian Is Granted a Post”.
As we have reported, Grigor Amalian’s term in office as Chairman of the National Commission on Television and Radio (NCTR) expired in April 2013. Grigor Amalian headed this regulatory body for 12 years – ever since its foundation on March 19, 2001. The NCTR Chairman became nationally and internationally famous due to the denial of a broadcast license to an independent oppositional TV company “A1+” on April 2, 2002. Since then “A1+” has many times taken part in broadcast licensing competitions conducted by the NCTR, and every time the bids of the TV company were scored lower than those of its contestants, while the lawsuits disputing the results of the competitions were dismissed. In December 2010 NCTR refused to grant “A1+” TV company a broadcast license for the thirteenth time regardless the June 17, 2008 European Court of Human Rights ruling (on the case of the “A1+” founder, “Meltex” LLC, versus the Republic of Armenia), which acknowledged the refusals to provide “A1+” with a license as a violation of Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, i.e. of the right to freely impart information and ideas (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, June 13-19, 2008).
Now Grigor Amalian has become the head of a state body that also has an immediate relation with the broadcasting sphere, this time, though, with its merely technical aspects. Thus, among the main directions of the activities of the “Television and Radio Broadcasting Network of Armenia” (TRBN) are: services to disseminate and transmit TV and radio programs using their own technical means; to maintain technical tools of TV and radio companies, communications operators and other entities installed at TRBN stations, as well as the construction, maintenance and operation of the national network of digital TV and radio broadcasting.
